ThomasGrayPrimary School

Literacy Policy

Rationale

At ThomasGrayPrimary School we encourage our pupils to become lifelong learners. We want to give children an education of the highest standard, we aim for excellence in all our school activities and encourage all pupils, whatever their ability to achieve the best they possibly can. We believe that providing pupils with a well balanced, enriching and engaging Literacy curriculum that will aid them in developing into self-assured communicators. Our Literacypolicy will ensure that all pupils become confident speakers, listeners, readers and writers, preparing them for life in the 21st century and beyond.

Aims

  • To ensure that all pupils are receiving a well-balanced Literacy curriculum
  • To ensure that each teacher is providing pupils with a consistent approach to Literacy teaching
  • To ensure that all pupils are given the opportunity to extend their knowledge and skills
  • To ensure that all pupils are exposed to different genres and authors

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go’

Dr. Seuss

Reading Aims

  • To build on the children’s language experiences and early reading skills that they have already acquired.
  • For pupils to emerge from inexperienced readers to independent readers who read a variety of texts for different purposes.
  • To look for higher standards because we have high expectations of our children.
  • For children to develop as readers and to be able to enjoy reading for pleasure, alone or as a shared experience with an adult or their peers. We want children to be able to read independently and be able to follow personal interests, use their research skills to extend their knowledge and understanding.
  • To recognize that reading plays an important part of education and life.

Approaches

  • We encourage a love of books and of reading by providing a rich reading environment in our classrooms and in our school library.
  • Throughout the school, teachers read aloud to children on a regular basis. We read a wide range of good quality fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
  • We teach the word recognition skills needed to decode text and the language comprehension skills needed to understand what they read.
  • Word recognition skills are developed systematically in the early years through the teaching of synthetic phonics. We teach phonics daily in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1, using the Read, Write Inc material.
  • Language comprehension skills are developed and deepened through regular shared and guided reading in discrete English lessons and across the curriculum.
  • Teachers have access to a range of levelled sets of books to use during Guided Reading activities in class. Children also change their free choice library books regularly and take home to read.
  • We assess children’s reading using end of term reading comprehension tests and teachers keep on-going weekly guided reading records of children’s progress in reading.

Read Write Inc

The Read Write Inc Phonics Approach

Read Write Inc Phonics is a lively and vigorous teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn 44 common sounds in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spelling (encoding) They read lively storybooks and non-fiction books with words they can decode, so they achieve early success in reading. As the children are taught to decode and encode, they are also taught to comprehend and to compose out loud.

The Read Write Inc Comprehension Approach

Read Write Inc Comprehension follows on from RWI phonics and is a series of weekly modules for children in Year 2, who can decode (read) very well at level 2c+. The programme has 30 modules which include a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts. The programme further develops children’s comprehension of and response to a variety of texts so they become critical readers engaging with texts. The programme also focuses on improving children’s vocabulary, grammar, spelling and composition skills

Read Write Inc. Literacy & Language meets the demands of the new national curriculum in a fun and meaningful way. It is a complete literacy programme addressing the grammar and punctuation aspects of the new statutory assessments and raising attainment for all children. Drama and discussion are an integral part of the programme.

Structure

Nursery to Year 2 follow the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) program. Children are divided into phonic groups dependant on their reading and phonetic ability. At the end of each term children are assessed on their phonic knowledge and progressed monitored. Children will then be placed in group relevant to progress made.Once children (in KS1) have mastered their phonics, and can read well they move onto RWI comprehension.

At KS2 our teaching of English follows the Read Write Inc model, as exemplified in Language & Literacy. KS2 children who need further support will be given appropriate intervention strategies by using either the Read Write Inc Scheme including comprehension or the Fresh Start scheme for those children in upper Key Stage 2.

We believe for a small number of children Read Write Inc is not the complete answer and other approaches must be pursued e.g. look and say.

Resources

The guided reading resources are kept in a central location. It is the responsibility of all adults working in the school to return the resources in their original state.

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."

James A. Michener

Writing Aims

  • To develop pupils in becoming efficient and effective writers who are able to write appropriately for a variety of audiences.
  • To develop pupils in acquiring the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within a range of contexts.
  • To ensure all pupils can use the conventions of written language and grammar.
  • To ensure that all pupils experience a range of purposes and forms of writing.
  • To ensure all pupils follow the PenPals handwriting scheme.
  • To ensure all pupils have opportunities to plan, edit, draft and present their work.
  • To develop pupils to become aware of and appreciate the writer’s craft.

Approaches

  • We provide a wide variety of reasons and purposes for writing and in the early years provide many opportunities for child initiated and role play writing.
  • We encourage children to ‘have a go’ at writing as soon as possible and to use their phonic skills and knowledge to spell.
  • We teach the features of different genres, as well as writing skills, including sentence structures, word classes and the use of a range of punctuation using the Read Write Inc Literacy and Language scheme.
  • Teachers regularly model writing in Shared Writing sessions and we provide regular opportunities for children’s writing to be shared, displayed, published and celebrated.
  • Extended writing takes place on a weekly basis using the Ros Wilson Big Write format. This takes the form of a two-week cycle. In the first week writing takes the form of modelled write for those needing extra support. The second week the children complete writing task independently.
  • We assess children’s writing half termly using Ros Wilson Criterion alongside National Curriculum objectives and use this assessment to inform further teaching.

Assessment for learning

Daily on-going assessment is made by teachers and teaching assistants.

  • Formative marking encourages children to revisit work and improve specific aspects. Refer to school marking policy.
  • Formal tests in reading, writing, spelling and grammar are given each term during assessment week.
  • Each term, teacher assessment and formal test results are recorded to show children's progress over time.
  • Birth to Development Matters is an on-going assessment throughout the Foundation Stage. It summarises children’s progress towards the Early Learning Goals to a good level of development.
  • Samples of children’s work are kept in in a folder in the Head Teacher’s office. This demonstrates what the expected level of achievement is in English in each year of the school.

Monitoring

  • Monitoring is carried out by the Senior Leadership Team and subject leader. This involves scrutiny of planning, children’s work, lesson observations and regular information, support and updates from the subject leader.
  • The SLT review the assessment data and teacher assessments on a termly basis to ascertain all children are making good progress and to make sure support or extension is provided where necessary.

The Governors are kept informed by the SLT and the English subject leader to review progress

Curriculum coverage

All pupils should be writing daily in some form across the curriculum using the skills and knowledge acquired in English lessons. Class teachers will follow the curriculum map to ensure that children are exposed to all genres and writing forms.

Handwriting

Handwriting plays an important part and is taught throughout the school following Penpals for Handwriting scheme. (Sassoon font) Children learn correct letter formation and begin to join their letters in KS1. Handwriting is specifically taught and practised weekly outside the daily literacy lesson in KS1 and KS2. Teachers have high expectations in the presentation of children’s work in all areas of the curriculum.

Homework

Home reading books, spellings and other English based activities, where appropriate, are sent home each week from EYFS to Year 6.

Monitoring and review

This policy is monitored by the governing body and will be reviewed every two years, or before if necessary.

Signed:

Date: